How to Light a Kitchen Island Without Using Pendants
Kitchen island lighting generally follows a familiar formula; all over Instagram, you’ll see luxury kitchens with a large island and 2-3 pendants over it. For the record, I always recommend including some recessed accent lighting in that scheme, but I understand why pendants are always included. They are usually a statement piece, and they provide vertical illumination in the kitchen.
Here’s a classic kitchen island approach (don’t ask me about those sconces on the backsplash!)
But last week, I was on a call with a client who has kitchen that overlooks the ocean and she doesn’t want to obstruct the view with pendants. So how do you get clean, shadow-free illumination above an island in that scenario?
While you could simply use recessed downlights here, you have to be careful; depending on the size of the island and the angle your recessed lighting takes, you could be in danger of creating harsh shadows. I suggest another form factor: a recessed linear fixture.
The benefit of a continuous linear here over downlights is you won’t get multiple shadows, and the shadows you do get will be soft and not as high contrast. Here are some tips to getting this idea right...
The lens should be either soft white or micro-prismatic to avoid shadowing
The lens should also be recessed into the housing (not flush to the ceiling) this will make the light source essentially disappear in the ceiling
A mud-in flange will make sure your ceiling is not interrupted.
I recommend the fixture is centered on island - 12”-24” shorter than the island itself
90+ CRI is always a baseline for color quality.
The width of the line of light is less important to me than the shielding. As long as you don’t have a bright line of light striping on your ceiling
If you need help writing this kind of specification, let me know.
